Speech

CHF GroundBreaking Ceremony

Thomas Morris, USAID Representative to Aceh and North Sumatra

Banda Aceh | Thursday, January 19, 2006

It is a sincere pleasure to be here with you all, working in cooperation with the Governor’s Office, the BRR, the Camat, the Community Resettlement Commitee, and the soon to be owners of these homes, some of them members of the Community Resettlement Committee. USAID thanks CHF for its work in this area.

USAID has been working in Aceh since the disaster struck, a tsunami of proportions we couldn’t have before imagined. We have progressed from the response mode, to operational recovery, to reconstruction activities.

It is shelter that is sorely needed, though, and has been for some time.

A year after the dister, according to BRR data, there are still 65,000 homeless. 65,000. The reasons for this are tenfold: from management to landownership rights. Having said that, we cannot get around the fact that this scale of disaster requires a lengthy recovery time.

We, USAID and its partners, are in for the long term, to see through to the end, the reconstruction of Aceh. To Build Back Better.

We chose CHF for this job, entrusting them with US$10 million to stand side by side with the Acehnese, and provide them the necessity due each family – shelter. This is just the beginning.

43 houses will be built here, in this community. In total, CHF and USAID, together, will build 1,000 houses!

As such, more houses will be built, especially along this road from Banda Aceh to Meulaboh, which USAID is reconstructing.

Today marks the beginning of this very fruitful partnership in the housing sector.

The people standing here, who will move into these homes - these are the people we work for.

And all that hard work, those many meetings and late discussion, is all worth it, to see these people able to look forward to a home, a place to live and raise their families.

Thank you all for your assistance, your hard work and cooperation to make this day, the beginning of a reality.

Learn more: Tsunami Reconstruction | About this activity

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